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City Of Phoenix, Arizona Project Description

Background

For more than a year and a half, the Phoenix Enterprise Community Job Linkage Subcommittee, the Community and Economic Development Department (CEDD), the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) at Arizona State University (ASU) and other key parties have been working on viable and innovative strategies to address the complex and formidable issues involved in connecting inner city Phoenix residents to jobs, helping to address poverty and providing long term, sustainable community development. These efforts have been focused in the Phoenix Enterprise Community (EC). The EC is a city- and federally-designated 20 square mile area of central city that has been targeted for economic revitalization.

In February 1997, the EC Oversight Committee and the City Council approved a comprehensive EC Job Linkage Action Plan designed to :1) develop a workforce that can take advantage of quality jobs; 2) connect EC residents with quality jobs in the area; 3) involve the community in making job linkages and providing support; and 4) establish a job linkage model that can be duplicated. The key strategies in the Job Linkage Action Plan involve: 1) linking jobs and residents; 2) building support systems; and 3) creating a sustainable community.

The Job Linkages Concept

The linkages approach to jobs requires multifaceted solutions to complex problems and a community support network for employment. The EC job linkages projects are expected to be different from traditional employment and training programs in the following important ways.

• Projects will be implemented through "Community Jobs Teams,"public/private partnerships, which will endeavor both to meet individuals' and employers' needs and to work with neighborhoods to build links for long-term success. The Community Jobs Teams determine how the services are defined and delivered to meet the needs and desires of the stakeholders, i.e. the people, organizations and businesses in the targeted area.

• Projects will be focused on existing employment centers and have direct, solid connections among employers, residents and service providers.

• An outside evaluation is built into the overall project.

Job Linkage Program Components

1. Staffing for planning.

2. Defining the neighborhood boundaries.

3. Forming a Community Job Linkage Program Planning Team. Members should be representative of key stakeholders including: for-profit businesses, business associations, nonprofit community organizations, neighborhood associations, public and private post-secondary education institutions, school districts, churches, school-to-work partnerships, transportation providers, child care providers, health care providers, etc.

4. Developing neighborhood indicators to measure project progress/success.

5. Researching, including detailed neighborhood, employment and employment support needs analyses, key issues.

6. Developing a customized job linkage strategy.

7. Developing a collaborative management structure for resulting the initiative.

Proposed Target Area

Since there are two demonstration projects in the EC and there is interest and demand for replicating the Job Linkage concept outside of the EC, it is proposed to target an area in City Council District 5. It is proposed that the industrial park located in the vicinity of Thomas to Osborn roads, 31st to 35th avenues. There is currently an effort underway by the Council Office and Community and Economic Development to organize a business association in this area.